Taiwan drops one place in WEF ranking

COMPETITIVENESS South Korea beat Taiwan for the first time in the annual listing, jumping from No. 24 last year to No. 11 this year, while Taiwan slipped to No. 14

By Jessie Ho / STAFF REPORTER

Taiwan's world competitiveness fell one place to No. 14 this year, according to a report released by the World Economic Forum (WEF) yesterday.

Taiwan was ranked No. 8 in the WEF annual rankings in 2005 and fell to No. 13 last year.

The Global Competitiveness Report 2007-2008 ranked the competitiveness of 131 countries and economies based on public data and surveys of 11,000 business leaders worldwide.

Of three sub-indices in the Global Competitiveness Index, Taiwan advanced two spots to No. 19 in "basic requirements," but dropped by three and one position in "efficiency enhancers" and "innovation and sophistication factors" respectively.

In the 12 categories under the three sub-indices, Taiwan attained its highest ranking -- No. 6 -- in "health and primary education" and performed worst in "financial market sophistication," where it was ranked No. 58.

Taiwan's business competitiveness also fell to No. 23 from No. 21 last year, the report said.

The WEF said the top three problems to doing business in Taiwan were policy instability, inefficient government bureaucracy and government instability.

The US regained the top position in the overall ranking this year, followed by Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden and Germany.

South Korea surpassed Taiwan for the first time, leaping to 11th position in the chart from No. 24 last year, the report said. China rose from No. 54 to No. 34.

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